About

Ace Looking at Amaya Crying, also known as the Ace Side-Eye, refers to a moment during a season 7 episode of the reality TV show Love Island USA in which contestant Ace Greene squints and looks over at fellow contestant Amaya Espinal while she is crying. The clip became a prevalent reaction used in memes on Twitter / X and TikTok in June 2025. It was mostly used to express confusion over someone crying or being emotional.

Origin

On June 15th, 2025, season 7, episode 12 of Love Island USA aired on Peacock.^[1] During the episode, contestants Huda Mustafa and Jeremiah Brown were recoupled after viewers voted for Brown to be coupled with "Bombshell" Iris Kendall.^[2]

During the scene, contestants Ace Greene and Amaya Espinal were seated next to each other. At one moment, Greene is shown squinting and looking over at Espinal, who is crying.

The full clip was posted by the YouTube^[3] channel of Love Island USA on June 16th, gaining over 17,400 views in a day. At the video's 3:33-minute mark (shown below), Greene looks over at Espinal.

Spread

On June 15th, 2025, X^[4] user @freefenne posted the Ace Looking at Amaya Crying clip, captioning it, "THIS IS FRYINGGGG ME," in all caps. Over two days, the tweet received over 27,000 likes (shown below).

THIS IS FRYINGGGG ME BXBXHXHXBSHDHXB pic.twitter.com/YsMLb3yGVa

— rachel (@freefenne) June 16, 2025

Later on June 15th, X^[5] user @spinellion reposted the clip, captioning it, "Ace you're evil but you just made it on my top five Love Island moments," gaining over 5,200 likes in two days (shown below).

ace you’re evil but you just made it on my top five love island moments pic.twitter.com/rLS83YcxzB

— shrimpina 🧃 (@spinellion) June 16, 2025

On June 16th, 2025, TikToker^[6] @sixmote posted an edit using clips of Ace Greene in the season 7, episode 12 scene, adding the caption, "Ace is the definition of a real hater OMG," gaining over 104,000 likes in a day (shown below).

On June 16th, TikToker^[7] @..bookofquotes_ posted the Ace Looking at Amaya Crying clip, adding the caption, "Me cus my face will always say it when my mouth doesn't," gaining over 250,200 likes in a day (shown below).

Various Examples

i’m sorry this is prob the funniest, most unserious beef in love island history https://t.co/meBwIIQ0kt

— . (@thattgirldes) June 16, 2025

i hate this man can still get a chuckle outta me lmaoo #loveislandusa pic.twitter.com/HqRJgKOtkQ

— 𝑨𝒃𝒃𝒚⁷ 🍂 (@kookiemonssta) June 16, 2025

Search Interest

External References